News Bulletin

Japan's R&D expenditure decreased for the third consecutive year

The SBJ's 2011 Survey of Research and Development (R&D) showed that Japan's total expenditure on R&D during fiscal year 2010 decreased for the third consecutive year.

The results of the survey were released on December 14, 2011.

The Survey has been conducted annually on March 31 since 1953 to obtain basic data for promoting science and technology in Japan. It studies the annual R&D activities of business enterprises, non-profit institutions and public organizations, universities and colleges.

The survey results are used for estimates of national accounts statistics and analyses for Science and Technology policies of the government. They are also often reported in various papers such as government White Papers.

[Summary]

Japan's total expenditure on R&D during fiscal 2010 stood at 17.11 trillion yen, a decrease of 136 billion yen (0.8%) from the previous fiscal year. This means the expenditure on R&D as a percentage of GDP fell to 3.57%, down 0.07 percentage points from the previous fiscal year.

When broken down by sector, business enterprises spent 12.01 trillion yen, universities and colleges 3.43 trillion yen, and non-profit institutions and public organizations 1.67 trillion yen.

Compared with the previous fiscal year, expenditure by business enterprises increased by 26 billion yen (0.2%), while that by universities and colleges decreased by 116 billion yen (3.3%) and non-profit institutions and public organizations by 47 billion yen (2.7%).

Broken down by the source of funds, the non-government sector was the biggest contributor with 13.73 trillion. The central and local government sector supplied a further 3.31 trillion yen.

As of March 31, 2011, the number of researchers was 843 thousand, an increase of 0.3% from the previous year. The number of female researchers reached a new record of 123 thousand, accounting for 13.8% of the total number of researchers.

With regard to the technology balance of payments of business enterprises, receipts from technology exports stood at 2.44 trillion yen. This is an increase of 421 billion (20.9%) from the previous fiscal year. Payments for technology imports stood at 530 billion yen, a decrease of 5 billion yen (0.9%). Consequently, the trade balance amounted to 1.91 trillion yen, an increase of 426 billion yen or 28.8% from the previous fiscal year.

Technology Balance of Payments

Notes:

Financial flows such as R&D expenditure are reported for the year ending on the latest settling day prior to March 31, 2011, while the total for R&D personnel is as of March 31, 2011.